Poll Answer: Who Invented the Alphabet?

Poll

This is a response to the following poll:

As always, it is a simple question with a complicated answer. The question being, who invented the alphabet and not who invented a writing system. Writing itself goes back about 5000 years and seems to surface in both Mesopotamia with the early Sumerian cultures present in the region and in parallel, the early Egyptians along the Nile. The writing systems used were not alphabetic but instead, logo-syllabic and consisted of dozens, if not hundreds of characters which required a special scribal education to utilize.

Writing in general was originally invented for administrative purposes. Over time, this evolved and writing was then used to capture epic tales or moments in time and so much more.

Now, the alphabet as we know it originates from the Levant and is introduced to us by the early Canaanite cultures of the Iron Age. Moving backwards in time, the Latin speaking Romans adopted it from the Greeks and in turn, the Greeks learned it from the Phoenicians; each culture making the modifications required to capture their language. So, the history books will tell you that it was the Phoenicians who invented the alphabet but is that actually the case? If anything the Phoenicians are credited for spreading the alphabet via their trade network across the Mediterranean Sea.

It has been suggested that the alphabetic script used by the Phoenicians (and surrounding Canaanites) evolved from a more primitive Proto-Canaanite script dating to as early as 1700 BC and with characters strongly influenced by Egyptian hieroglyphs.

There is also the case of Ugarit; a Bronze Age site located on the coast of Syria. Utilizing a similar cuneiform writing system used by its neighbors (i.e. Hittites, Assyrians and Babylonians, etc.), the Ugarits also wrote in an alphabetic script until their city was destroyed at around 1200 BC.

Anyway, until there is more clarity on the topic, the Phoenicians are likely to continue receiving credit for this wonderful invention because once the alphabet came to be, it removed the need for specialized peoples to read and write using it. With the simplified system of writing, any one can could use it and many did. Literacy grew at an exponential rate and the world would never be the same again.